New technology and a long-term shortage of people willing to hit the road are putting a squeeze on shippers, retailers and eventually consumers.
“The most important thing that our industry is trying to focus on now is recruiting more individuals to become truck drivers,” said Shannon Newton, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association.
The lobbyists say that the economy improves, the trucker shortage grows in impact.
Over-the-road shipping accounts for 69 percent of all domestic freight, and in Arkansas, 85,000 people work in trucking. That amounts to one out of every 11 jobs in the state.
Traditionally, the ones in the cabs and on the roads hail from an older demographic, and as they age, it’s putting a pinch on trucking companies.
“A lot of the baby boomer generation is starting to weed out,” said Malea Still, V.P. of Business Development for CalArk Trucking of Little Rock. “We try to get the drivers or the people interested in our industry. It is a very attractive industry, but to get that out there and to make it look very positive has been a challenge.”
That generation is also a resistant to new technology and the regulations enforcing it.
The federal government will soon mandate that electronic logging devices are installed in every truck within the next two years.
That will coincide with stricter guidelines on how long truckers can be on the road on a given haul.
It marks a shift away from paper logs, and the shift is driving long-time truckers into retirement. Industry observers say many are fed up by how the devices bring a government watchdog right into the cab with them.
However, the technology also has the potential to bring new blood into the industry.
“Before when they were on paper logs, it was really hard to look at that and see where they stand on their hours of service,” Still said.
“The drivers that have been forced to use them, actually don't want to give them up,” said Newton. “You and I like to have technology in our vehicles like the maps and the push button features and so things such as that are desirable to the drivers.”
But in the near-term there is a lag between getting the set-in-their-ways group of mostly smaller operators out and recruiting a new generation of drivers to hit the road.
And for the drivers there now, demand goes up. That pushes their pay higher, and that pushes up costs through the supply chain, meaning eventually we pay more for thousands of items we buy that can only be shipped over the road.
And those new regulations could make it worse before it gets better.
“Paper logs allowed some drivers to ‘make it work,’” said Newton. “The ELDs mean we're not going to be as flexible. We are going to be in compliance with the rules and I think you'll see that will have an effect on capacity.”
So the industry is preparing themselves. Still says CalArk is trying to reach high school students even though most graduates won’t be able to go into trucking for a few years after they graduate. Newton says the entire industry is trying to reach new demographic groups, like women and Hispanics. She points out the tech and creature comforts in the newest trucks make the job much easier than in past decades. And many companies promise schedules that they hope eventually change the image of a trucker as a person always rolling along to one with more of a home life.
And then there’s the money the industry is prepared to throw around to get new drivers.
“Drivers can start out making $45,000 a year and that can grow quickly depending on whether you become one of our owner-operators,” said CalArk’s Still.
Newtown says they need to get the tech and the shortage solved to avoid pain in the pocketbook.
“We're going to have to move more freight in a congested environment with the same amount of trucks,” she said. “That just doesn't work. We're going to have to have more truck drivers.”
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